The cat came back

You know that song "The Cat Came Back?" Here is one version: http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/316_songs/Nedelle.mp3

My wife is in Africa for a few more weeks and that is pretty tough. I miss her something fierce. Then there is a bunch of stuff breaking around the house and just when it seems like I've got it all under control something else happens...like that cat coming back.

Speaking of: the cat has now bled on our one "good" couch and I can't get the stains out. He has also chosen another couch to be sick on AND to do it in such a way that his puke has run down between the cushions. The litter box has become more of a suggestion and he continues to bald himself by pulling out his own hair (until his little paws bleed). I sure love that little guy.

There is some good stuff. I've been biking a lot until the knee started hurting. I managed to replace my dishwasher with a new one and hooked it up all by myself. It rained yesterday.

Crotch of Iron

It's been a while, you're just gonna have to deal.

Short version: laid off on January 5th, looked for job A LOT until I landed a bike mechanic position on April 6th.

I've been biking some this winter and spring. My commute to work is 36 miles round trip (to work 12 hour shifts mostly). I'm going to put a light, rack and basket on my bike this week to make it possible (Thanks http://3speedblog.blogspot.com). So I've been biking more this week and today I rode the annual Iron Crotch in Wisconsin.

This is an "alternative" ride to the Iron Man ride which is a popular spring ride in MN which involves a boring course, lots of car traffic and lots of inexperienced riders (and costs $30 more than the Iron Crotch). The Iron Crotch ride if you haven't guessed already is a gorgeous course through the countryside of Wisconsin, has much less car traffic, and the riders tend to be more experienced...and there is a lot less of them: 175 limit versus 1000s- billions depending on whether Greg Lemond shows up to give a grumpy pants speech or not.

Today's 60 mile ride was punctuated by rain. One of my fellow 8 riders had a leak in his camel back which got his backside wet right at the beginning of the ride. Turned out not to matter one bit. I'm not adverse to riding in the rain, but when it warms up to 43F that makes for some cold riding.

At the 1/2 way point some of my fellow band of riders were tempted to quit as they took in the warmth of a coffee house, but thankfully our fearless leader http://planetary-gears.blogspot.com/2009/04/long-distance-cycling.html talked them into continuing (props to Jim for riding 35 miles to the start of the event and then back, at least I hope he made it back, somebody with more energy should really check on that).

Since the weather forecasts all week said there would be rain today (90% chance when I checked again this morning) I brought my rain gear. I even had plastic bags for my feet (stick them around your socks, insert socks into shoes: works well for about 20 miles or so which I learned the hard way today). Next time I will try tucking them into the tops of my socks instead of just under my biker-tights ( I have no idea if that's the right term and I'm too tired to look it up right now so there).

To my amazement hardly any other riders showed up with rain gear???!?!? Even fearless Jim who was staring down 130 miles over the course of the day was wearing all wool?!?! When he started shivering I told him if he started taking off his clothes (one of the last things people with hypothermia do before they perish) I was going to tackle him and hold him down until the others got his pants back on.

It was a fun ride in that I got to spend some time talking to good folks. We only managed 13.5 MPH average, but it was more fun chatting than trying to stick to some sort of speed regimen. I have a much longer ride planned for later this summer so this was a good start for some of those base miles.

A dog's day

I know I'm not supposed to be on the couch, but neither is Harold. Maybe if I look down you won't see me:

OK, now I'll just start flicking out my tounge and scare you out of disciplining me:

Stop pretending you can fly Harold! I think it's working:

Ewww! Get away Harold!

tobacco jerk

Last night I was driving in California at about 70MPH when a guy walked in front of the car which was in front of me and tossed a cartons worth of tobacco into the grill of the car! I was pretty angry that he would do that to someone.

When I got to him he tossed more tobacco into my side window! Road rage took over and I swerved at him. He must have been pooned (see the novel Snowcrash) to something because I couldn't hit him and he appeared to be just floating or running at 70 MPH!

When I got to my destination restaurant he walked in after me and was challenging me to a fight. He was at least 6' 7" (my roommate is 6' 5" so I have a good feel for height estimates these days) and built like a tank!

I told him I was calling 911 and he responded by calling 911.

Then I started to worry that throwing tobacco into people's cars wasn't as bad as trying to run them over in revenge. This jerk was going to win!

Then, thankfully, I woke up.

BEWARE!!

As my friend at http://planetary-gears.blogspot.com/ has pointed out: this story is making the rounds on the local blog scene: http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/cities-top-ten-lifestyle-real-estate_0129cities.html

So for those of you living in the sunbelt or on the coasts please take note: it's TERRIBLE here in Minnesota! You have it figured out and are totally right so stay where you are.

The winters are so excruciatingly painful that folks who grew up here talk in very brief sentences (e.g. we use folks instead of people: one less letter, one less syllable). People think we are dull here, nope we have been frozen so many times we can't risk the extra energy to use more words. Same goes for outward expression and dancing. Why do you think this blog doesn't come out very often for gosh sakes!

You are probably thinking you'd like to visit in the summer if at all: bad move! Summer is when most people are killed here like the 213 people two July's back when a blizzard took everyone by surprise. Most of those people were out in the endless woods we have here and weren't found until the following June when it finally thawed out.

There are also hordes of mosquitoes here which carry diseases like West Nile Virus, Malaria, Herpes, and the big ones have been known to transmit bird flu. During our very brief summer we Minnesotans spend our time running for cover from the incessant thunderstorms and totally random and unpredictable tornadoes all the while covered from head to toe on even the hottest of days (it can get as high as 40F) to try to keep safe from the mosquitoes.

I had a friend when I was growing up who rode his bike to the store on a completely clear sunny day only to be swept up by a tornado and dislodged two counties over! We never found his limbs, wolves probably got them.

Heaven forbid you don't get all the mosquitoes out of your house in the fall. When one of those pests gets into your attic for the winter it can lay 1000s of eggs and all it takes is one warm spell (20F or warmer) and your house now has a horde of infection raining down on you and your children.

You just have to live with it until spring (usually in June, sometimes later) when you can finally get out of the house, raze it , and re-build before winter comes (usually in August, sometimes sooner).

Play it safe people: stay away!

The Bolivian Shepard makes a statement

Nothing to see here. I'm cool with this stylish Elizabethan cone thing you guys have me wearing.

No, as a matter of fact I DON'T KNOW how this thing came apart! Maybe you should have made it sturdier you silly man!

more about those bike balls

This is from that clever Bike-snob in Brooklyn:

....and I was delighted to read that the XTR hub will actually "cradle the balls":If you've been looking for an excuse to upgrade, here it is. The XTR hub is a huge step up from the XT model, which merely cups the balls, and a significant upgrade from the LX hub, which kind of mushes them. I don't even want to say what a Deore hub does to the balls, but suffice to say unless you want to replace your balls on a regular basis you're better off walking. Actually, you might as well put the balls in a vise. On the other hand, if you want to experience pure bliss, try adding the Shimano's Yumeya aftermarket kit. Suki desu ka? Hai, suki desu! The balls will say domo arigato gozaimasu.

In these crazy times it's nice knowing he is there to brighten my day with his humorous pessimism.

Sorry I'm not writing anything myself but life has not been ueber-good these past two weeks and who wants to read about that shite, ken?